Importance of Social Connectedness as a Moderator in Korean Immigrants’ Subjective Well-Being

Subjective well-being theories of goal approach and value-as-a-moderator were applied to examine the role of importance of social connectedness on the relationship between social connectedness and subjective well-being in a community sample of 204 Korean immigrants. It was hypothesized that social connectedness in ethnic and mainstream society is a stronger predictor of well-being to immigrants who highly value/desire it than to those who do not. The results from hierarchical multiple regression analyses provided partial support for the hypotheses. For immigrants who highly valued connectedness in the ethnic community, positive affect increased with greater connectedness in the ethnic community, whereas, for immigrants who did not value it, connectedness in the ethnic community was not associated with positive affect. Implications for theory, research, and practice were discussed.